Elf on the Shelf: Welcome Breakfast / Goodbye Breakfast

Whether you do a "Welcome Breakfast" when your Elf arrives, a surprise breakfast during his time with you, a "Goodbye Breakfast" the morning he leaves, or you just want a fun Christmas themed breakfast, this post has something for you!

The spread...

TABLE

Honestly, I had ordered a super cute red and white chevron fabric for a runner or placemats for the table, but it didn't arrive in time, so I used a gold tablecloth that I had on hand along with some red and white poly napkins.  You could use festive paper napkins as well.

CHAIRS

The chairs are adorned with Santa hat chair covers from the dollar store.  They had to be worked to get over the tops of my wide chairs, but it was fine.

HOT AIR BALLOONS for the Elves

The hot air balloons for the elves (my sister and her family were staying wit us Thanksgiving night, so we had both elves arrive at my house the morning after Thanksgiving) were made with Chinese paper lanterns, solo cups, my free PRINTABLES, curling ribbon, peppermint ornaments, and mini-tree Christmas "lights."

ORNAMENT CHANDELIER

The ornament chandelier is made with 75 shatterproof ornaments and red satin cord.  I don't actually recommend making one.  It was a pain in my - yeah.  A royal pain.

CENTERPIECE

The centerpiece is a collection of "trees."  I had all of the silver and white ones, and they are displayed on my entryway table through the holidays, but I picked up a few red ones to go with the theme, and I used them on the table for the morning.  (I later moved them to my entryway table when breakfast was over.)

PLATES

I have a huge stack of glass plates.  I bought them 10+ years ago when we were having a huge reception at our home.  I figured they would match anything, and when we had a large number of guests, they would be perfect.  I use them ALL the time.  They worked great for this, because I used red chargers, my free PRINTABLES, and the glass plates.  It dressed up the printables even a little more than the clear plastic plates would have.  (Even though, those would certainly work as well.)

ORNAMENT CRAFT

I placed the Gratitude Ornament PRINTABLE under the chargers, and I used DIY cupcake stands to hold red and white cupcake liners with the clear acrylic ornaments.  This will absolutely become an annual tradition!  Ages 4-14 willingly participated in this craft, and it was great to take some time to remember what is really important.  I only wish I had purchased enough for the adults to each make one as well.

HOT CHOCOLATE with SANTA MARSHMALLOWS

White coffee mugs each held a large marshmallow with a Santa hat drawn on with Wilton Food Writers in anticipation of hot chocolate.  Red and white paper straws were at the ready, as well.

FAVORS

I picked up a box of shatterproof "candy" ornaments, and I wrote each child's name on the side of it to add to their annual ornaments as a remembrance of the breakfast fun.

REINDEER PANCAKES

Lastly, we made a reindeer pancake breakfast with bacon, chocolate chips, and strawberries!  

Do you do a Welcome Breakfast?  What are your traditions?

Check out our other Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Free Printables here!  Please feel free to pin, link, and share, but link to our blog posts and not directly to the printables.